“Today’s meeting in Paris … was very constructive and indicates a willingness by the EU to work with us to find a concrete way forward to achieve reciprocal trade,” Greer said in a press release.
While the U.S. has listed the trade barriers it faces in its dealings with the EU, Šefčovič reiterated that there is also room for positive engagement with Washington on semiconductors, AI chips, liquefied natural gas purchases and developing a common approach on raw materials as well as tackling the global steel glut.
Pressure is however ramping up on Brussels to find an agreement with the White House, with a temporary truce on tariffs lapsing in early July.
“We should do our utmost to find an amicable solution and to get the deal before July 9. It’s clearly the ambition from our side, and I think that is also the ambition from the U.S. side,” Šefčovič told reporters.
Brussels and Washington agreed to step up the pace of talks in late May, after Trump threatened to impose a 50 percent tariff on all European goods. The European Commission, however, warned this week it would hit back with up to €120 billion in retaliatory tariffs, should there be no mutually beneficial agreement.
Wednesday’s meeting, on the sidelines of an Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development trade ministerial, is the first to be held between EU and U.S. negotiators on European soil since Trump took office in January.
Šefčovič has paid three publicly disclosed visits to Washington in a bid to negotiate away the U.S. tariffs.
This story has been updated.
